Savage Mill Dam

 White's Mill Dam

In 1726 the land at Savage was surveyed for Joseph White for his patent called "White's Fortune" (see image to right).  He apparently already had settled the land as in the survey it states that the beginning survey point was a White Oak and a Dogwood tree 

"standing by the head of a mill race belonging to the said White by the Great Dam of Stones and near the Great Falls of Patuxent River"

While this of course isn't the ruins of the more modern Savage Dam it does indicate a mill operating by 1726 making it the earliest known grain mill in what would become Howard County (John McGrain's 2007 Molinography of Maryland has no earlier mill in Howard County).   White's Fortune received it's patent in 1734.

In 1752, Joseph White, Jr., patented the land for his family's mill appropriately called "Mill Land". A patent was needed because White's Fortune apparently did not include it in its description of the metes and bounds. Still, it is amazing to think that there has been a dam above the Great Falls for almost 300 years.

Savage Manufacturing Company Dam

The current structure where the ruins can still be found was built by the Savage Manufacturing Company after John Savage purchased from Gideon White (Joseph White Jr's son) in 1823 the following two tracts of land:

• Mill Land (8 1/2 acres)

• White's Contrivance (200 acres)

In 1828 "A Report and Plans of the Survey of a Route for A Canal from the City of Baltimore to the Contemplated Chesapeake and Ohio Canal" it referred to a dam that could "accumulate during the night a quantity to remove the deficiency [of water}during the day".  It referred to "valuable grist and saw mills which occupy the second fall at the Savage Factory" implying that the Great Falls were used for the cotton factory itself.

The great rains and floods in this area during October 7, 1847 that washed away two bridges on the B&Os Washington Branch Line (they would both be replaced with the first iron bridges for the rail road - Bollman designed bridges) also washed away one of the smaller dams at Savage but left the main stone dam intact by "water rushing through the race" although its abutments were carried away.

 in the 1880 census, the Savage cotton factory dam was described as:

• "The dam is 185 feet long and 18 feet high"

• "the race is half a mile long"

• "the fall used is 55 feet, capable of being increased, it is said, to 60 feet".

The Last Savage Mill Dam

Was this dam described in 1880 at the same location as the current ruins?  Based on the dimensions provided it seems the answer is YES!  Was it made of the same Oak and granite as the most recent dam?  That we just don't know for sure but it is possible. Savage also had a Saw Mill producing planks of Oak and Poplar according to the 1850 Manufacturing Census.  A dam made of oak with granite abutments would need to have the wood repaired periodically.   

From the photos below it looks like there were different versions of this dam.  The last four photos from the Savage Historical Society appear a little different from the first set of photos.  What do you think?

In Filby (1965) she included a photo from October 1964 which shows the broken dam where boys are fishing as well as one with an intact dam date 1936.